When Rangers supporters tuned in to watch this season’s Champions League group stage draw, buoyed by fresh memories of Eindhoven, there was no sense of fear.

Trepidation? Perhaps. Anticipation? Definitely. But having dispatched PSV to reach football’s promised land, on the bedrock of steady European progression in previous seasons that culminated in ceiling-raiser Giovanni van Bronckhorst masterminding the Road to Seville, the jump up felt natural.

This was an opportunity to show Europe’s best the power of Ibrox, by applying the same methodology that saw off Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and others.

“We want to compete, we are here to compete, you want to compete with the best teams in Europe,” was the message in van Bronckhorst’s post-match press conference after a 1-0 win against PSV to earn a Champions League spot.

“I always remember my first Champions League game with Feyenoord against Juventus away and in the first 20/25 minutes, I was blown away by the level. It’s an experience I will love for my players to have to compete.”

After four heavy defeats and two others that were never truly a contest, can that experience truly be looked upon as a positive?

Back in August, the only round van Bronckhorst had lost in Europe while at Ibrox was a final. His trump card was not only plotting the tactical triumphs but instilling a belief amongst his players, and subsequently the support, that punching upwards was achievable. Wins at Ibrox on European nights felt as plausible as they were possible.

Ever since a 4-0 defeat against Ajax on matchday one the mood has shifted dramatically. The juxtaposition of the manager’s comments on that night compared to those made two weeks earlier capture the contrasting experience of this season and last.

"To compete in the Champions League you need hundreds of millions. Otherwise you can’t compete. Look at Ajax, they sold players worth over £200million. Look at Liverpool as well. For us to compete with them, it’s too much to ask,” he said in Amsterdam.

"We want to compete but we want to compete with the squad we have and the squad we’re capable of making. We knew it would be tough and it showed today."

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With belief drained and excitement totally quelled, last night’s game felt over inside four minutes when Ajax opened the scoring. The manager’s subsequent comments arguably accentuated supporter's frustrations. 

“When you’re the team who comes on the pitch and already know you’re going to win because of the difference,” he commented in his post-match press conference.

“That’s the other side and now I face the side of the team whose not on the same level yet and we struggled against Liverpool, against Ajax and against Napoli. Teams who are operating in this league for years now and not only operating but also playing finals and winning Champions Leagues and that’s been hard for us.”

You have to presume that was not the tone held in the dressing room pre-match. Surely the players have not approached all six games believing they cannot compete? It’s a far cry from Connor Goldson’s defiant pre-match call inside the tunnel against Leipzig: “I don’t care who they are, what their name is, what they’re worth. They haven’t got a team like us. Come on, no respect, let’s go.”

And that’s the main point. Van Bronckhorst is right to point out levels, he knows so much more about the Champions League than this writer. But how far would this team have progressed last year? Or vice versa. How much better would last year’s cohort have fared in this group? Maybe a better-performing Rangers side would’ve exited the competition, but they would’ve done so swinging.

To recycle a previously made statement, if European competition was decided on financials alone, the Road to Seville would’ve come to a halt at the Signal Iduna stadium.

For all the conversation of a learning curve, this team will likely not be together next season to put such lessons into practice. Surely, the rebuild that looked set to take place this summer will occur in the next. How many that started last night will start next season?

PSV, who recently defeated Arsenal, are a point behind Ajax in the Eredivisie at time of writing. Union Saint-Gilloise topped their group which featured Malmo, Braga and Bundesliga-leaders Union Berlin. They are both good teams that couldn’t beat Rangers over two legs.

More so than becoming accustomed to success, Ibrox had become accustomed to not feeling so far away from it in Europe.

For all the talk of levels, Rangers were not at their own in this group stage and have not been for far too much of this season.

This piece is an extract from today’s Rangers Insider newsletter, which is emailed out at 4pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Rangers Review team.

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